- List of a lifetime is personal for you
because as most people know you have been
fighting breast cancer for a few years now.
So how did your diagnosis change,
how you thought about the future?
Because I've had a few friends,
survivors of cancer one, one did not.
And it, and it's, it's one of those things
where I feel like it affects people in different ways.
How do you think it impacted you?
- You know what I hear a lot is people saying,
God, you know you just, you know, seize the day
you live for today and I'm actually the opposite.
I'm very much like a planner for tomorrow now.
Whereas, I don't think I was before.
Now I'm, now I'm very focused on like the future and
and doing yes, everything that I can now,
but I don't live as if like today is my last day
or tomorrow could be my last day.
- Yeah.
- I don't go into that mindset because if I do,
I think that you're almost sort of giving into it,
whereas I, I kind of go, yeah, I'm gonna to live forever.
I'm gonna ya know,
I'm gonna be that person with stage four cancer
that lives the longest.
I'm gonna break all the records.
- Yeah, absolutely.
(audience claps)
- I'll knock with ya, yep, yep, yep, yep.
- I think that I, I,
ya know it just doesn't stay in the forefront of my brain.
Like the, the, the times I think about it
I take meds every single night.
And that's when I, I have to think about it
because I'm swallowing pills
and I'm not a good pill swallower.
I'm like terrible at it.
- Me neither, I'm like almost 40 years old
I can't even, it's it I'm like a child.
- Yeah.
- But that's so that's the only time
you're really reminded you tried it before.
- Yeah, I mean, you know, I mean, obviously I go in
and I get my blood work done once a month
and I get pet scans done every six months.
So there's, you know every six months it's pretty scary
because you're waiting for the other shoe to drop
and you know.
- And what's happening.
- And what's spread and what's going on.
But other than those times,
I just try to act normal and believe that like
life is you know, you just move on.
You just stay positive and live life
like you normally would
maybe taking care of yourself a little bit better.
(audience clapping)
- Yeah, well we could all do that.
- Right.
- Anyway yeah, how would you want to change the perception
when people say stage four, that's the diagnosis like how.
- Yeah.
- Cause I know a lot of people will go,
oh my gosh, then it's over.
A lot of people do that.
It's not, I've had friends survive stage four situation.
So it's, it's not and I love
I've heard about your mentality about this
about kind of changing the narrative on that.
And you even saying like, look I love working.
I love, it's not, I'm like like here right now
I wanna do stuff, like is that really what
you're trying to push forward?
- Yes, because people with stage four
get written off immediately.
- Yeah.
- They get written off by insurance companies.
They get written off by doctors.
They get written off by you know, your, your boss
and in truth I think when you have something like this
happen to you, you're you're probably an even harder worker
than you ever were.
And for me as an actor, I, I now have such a wealth of, of,
of emotions to like dig in and tap into for my acting.
- Yeah.
- So I think I'm a better actor than I ever was.
And, and I, and by myself working
yes, it's helping me for sure.
But it's also sort of putting out there
like hey, don't, don't write us off.
- Yeah
- We are we're still vibrant, we're still out there.
(audience clapping)
And we want to be a part of the workforce.
You know, we, we
- Yeah.
- We want to continue to contribute to the world
and earn money and also so many people with stage four
have families, you know, like that depend on them and
and you need the paycheck.
Like, you know, we're a, we're a two income household.
My husband works, I work.
But if I don't work, you know, we suffer.
It's the same if he doesn't work, we suffer.
- Like.
- Yeah.
- So all of a sudden to say, hey you know
this person has stage four so they can't work anymore.
You're, you're, you're taking away a livelihood too.
You're taking, you know, so it's, it's all of it.
It's, it's, we are stage four people
have a hell of a lot of life in them.
- Yeah, and, and you've got to let them live it.
(audience clapping)
- Yeah, Amen.
Well as many of you know,
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Many men and women are at risk for this disease
and it's important to catch it early.
So everyone, please remember to get checked.
A big thank you to Shannon for sharing her life
and her story with us. (audience clapping)